What Made the Difference? Nutrition.

photo courtesy: vitalityskills.com

Here is my food journal from a random Sunday in December 2008.  It may not look like it, but I was trying desperately to lose weight!

Not looking forward to the Monday Weigh In. I'm afraid it will be over 150 lbs.

Food Journal:
2 shredded wheat biscuits w/skim milk
1 whole wheat toast w/butter
1 small hot chocolate (skim)

1 small baked potato w/butter, low-fat sour cream
a 2-3 oz piece turkey breast (made it in the crockpot)
1/3 cup broccoli and cauliflower
1/3 cup spinach w/ tiny bit dressing to dip it in
1 cup skim milk

1 bowl Honey Bunches of Oats w/skim
1 1/2 clementine oranges
microwaved 1/3 cup plain popcorn, w/butter buds and a little parmesan. I was tempted to have coke with this, but then I remembered the weigh in coming up!
1/2 cup cran raspberry juice

It wasn’t working for me. Why not?  I should have been losing weight.  I was eating fewer calories then than I am now.

I was exercising:  I walked 3 miles six days a week (at 4 mph).  I was burning calories.  But I was not losing weight!

It wasn’t until I started nourishing my body that I saw results.  This was not a healthy way of eating! A small potato and less than a cup of green vegetables for the whole day? 1 ½ Clementine oranges for my fruit?  I was only looking at fat grams and calories in vs. calories out.  Until I understood what good real food is, I didn’t change.

As soon as I started eating a lot more fresh vegetables, especially green ones, more fruit, more water and less processed food I started to feel so much better.  If you’re struggling I know you don’t want to hear how easy it was, but at times I wondered if it was too good to be true: How could the weight be coming off so easily?  I’m feeling so good about my efforts but what if I’m actually wasting away from some deadly disease.  I really did think that a couple times. But it turns out I'm healthy.  I just had a hard time believing after all these years of trying to lose weight, I had finally figured out what worked for me!  When I started giving it what it needed, my body was more than happy to just let go of those extra pounds.

I still had my days or weeks where the scale didn’t budge, or it actually went up a couple pounds even though I was doing everything right. But this wasn’t a big deal because I wasn’t focused on the scale.  Instead I was trying to see how healthily I could eat each day.  That’s what made the difference.

Healthy Tasty Lunches

What to eat for lunch!  My favorite lunches are leftovers or something quick & easy!
Here are some of my lunches this week:

My new favorite salad.  Thank you to my sister Jacque for this recipe! I am a huge fan of Zupas, but it's not cheap or convenient for me to eat there daily.  This has been my lunch for the last 3 days.  The dressing is Maple Grove Fat Free Raspberry Vinaigrette.  I fill a LARGE bowl with spinach, lettuce, strawberries, mandarin oranges, blueberries, goat cheese and Emerald Glazed Almonds.  (Never tasted goat cheese until this week.) Just as tasty as Zupas Nuts About Berries salad.  I'm giving you links so you can see what I used, but I found everything at Walmart.

Egg Veggie Wrap.  This lunch was easy and yummy.  Scramble two eggs.  Steam some broccoli and asparagus.  Wrap them up in a whole wheat tortilla or Flat Out Wrap with a little grated cheddar and some Parmesan cheese. You definitely need the cheeses for flavor. Microwave it for 20 seconds just to melt the cheese and you're done. 

Bean and Guac Tacos.  I hesitated to put this picture up because it's not pretty.  But it's good.  I used refried beans, leftover rice and guacamole on whole wheat tortillas.  Then I added green leaf lettuce and ate it with my favorite green smoothie.

Chicken Veggie Stir Fry over Brown Rice.  Leftovers! Whenever I make this for dinner I look forward to lunch the next day.

I'm always looking for healthy quick lunch ideas.  What's your favorite healthy lunch?

Oh Happy Day

Today is a beautiful day! I reached my goal weight this morning.

I weighed in at 124.8 lbs. This calls for a photo.

I believe the last time I weighed 125 lbs was about 1987.  I'm feeling pretty good about that.

Go me!

Yes, I Ate It All

This was lunch today.  Leftover Cashew Pasta Bake (minus the cashews because they mysteriously disappeared from my pantry), 2 cups steamed veggies and 2 Green Leaf Lettuce leaves.
The only problem was that it was so huge it got cold before I could eat it all.
I'll be having a Green Smoothie and some hummus and flat bread for a snack today.
I missed breakfast because by the time I got home from the gym, library, grocery store and credit union, it was 11am.  So I made this ginormous lunch.
Dinner will be this Crock Pot Broccoli Chicken over brown rice with extra veggies.
And I definitely will be having a couple of these for dessert!  Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies from Trainer Momma. I made them last night because I was feeling adventurous and my kids loved them. Even my 10 year old (aka: "Pickiest Eater Ever Born") ate them, but only because he doesn't know what's in them.

Sometimes I Hate Running

 Today was one of those days when I hate running.  Especially on a treadmill.  I dreaded it before I even got out of bed, but I knew I would do it anyway.  I look forward to Zumba days.  I love dancing.  Running? Not so much. Some days it's easy. But on days like today while I'm on that treadmill I have to trick myself into running.  I talk to myself the whole time. Here's how the conversation goes on those days:

It's only the first song. It's always hard during the first song.  I'll feel good by the second song.

Feeling good.  I can do this. I'm 1/8 of the way through.  I only have to do what I've just done 7 more times.

Only 5 more songs to go.  I can run for 5 more songs.

At least run for another half mile, then maybe I'll walk.

I did another half mile, now go 3 more minutes.

I gotta get my mind off of this. I'll try not to look at the display for a while.

Oh good, I didn't look at the display for 2 tenths of a mile.

125 pounds!  125 pounds! 125 pounds!

5 more minutes.  5 more minutes, then I can quit.

People run marathons all the time. I can do another quarter mile.

2 more minutes. 15 seconds, 10 seconds, 5 seconds.  

Whew! That wasn't so bad. (now that I'm done)

And so it goes.

I REALLY wish I could Zumba every day because sometimes I hate running. 

The Gym Just Got Really Crowded

This is the time of year when all the treadmills are taken at the gym and the Zumba classes are filled with new bodies.

Two years ago I was one of those bodies.  155+ lbs and ready to try (again) to slim down.  I look at all the new faces there and I wonder how many of them will still be coming in March.  It seems like that's when the treadmills start to free up.  Those New Year's Resolutions to "lose some weight" are forgotten.

Some days I want all these new people to just go home because I've been waiting for a treadmill for 10 minutes and I'd really like to get my workout in before I have to pick kids up from preschool and kindergarten.  

I wish I could encourage them and say "I did it and so can you!  Just keep coming. Don't give up!  You're going to feel great a year from now!"

But I don't say anything.  
Because then they'd think I was a crazy stalker woman, and they'd stop coming.

And the treadmills would be free again.

I think I may be on to something.

Blackberry Giveaway!! - closed

Amy over at SuperHealthyKids.com is giving away 2 Blackberry Phones.  Super Healthy Kids is a great resource for finding healthy foods that your kids will love.  So please visit her website, but don't enter the giveaway because I really really want to win it!! ;)  Just kidding.  Sort of.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation!